The introduction to a 1918 text about John Manjiro (Nakahama Manjiro) and William H. Whitfield, including source documents and photographs.

This book was published by the Fairhaven Public Library in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, to commemorate the presentation of a ceremonial sword by the descendents of Manjiro to the descendents of Whitfield. In 1814, Manjiro was rescued and adopted by Whitfield, a whaling captain, while shipwrecked off the coast of Japan. Manjiro eventually rose to the position of first mate of an American whaling ship before returning to a life of prominence in Japan. Majiro is the first widely recognized Japanese immigrant to the US. His story has also become an important piece of Asian-American history and the history of the American whaling industry.

Citation Information
Excerpt from “The presentation of a Samurai sword, the gift of Doctor Toichiro Nakahama, of Tokio, Japan, to the town of Fairhaven, Massachusetts,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/b8ecaad23a06dafbb547464620b97a35.
Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.
Courtesy of Library of Congress via HathiTrust.

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